Content velocity meets creativity.

Today, creative teams of all sizes are feeling the need for speed. Digital media consumption and connections spiked during the pandemic, as people hunkered down and hopped online. The more they consumed, the more tailored experiences they wanted from publishers and brands — and the more creative teams needed to hustle to make it happen, ensuring a relevant, frictionless customer experience.

“When we think about audiences, we’re thinking about that tailored solution or tailored visual approach and really trying to understand the needs of the client and their audience,” says Juraj Molnar, creative director at Brooklyn-based Buzzworthy Studio. “So before we even start with a design or wireframe, we start with the sitemap, organizing the content and preparing the flow so it’s seamless. If this is not set up properly, everything else will just fall like a house of cards.”

As a creative leader in a growing business, you’re always balancing your customers’ needs and expectations against the needs, talents, and resource constraints of your internal team. In this article, we’ll share insights to help you set your team up for success in a fast-paced, digital-first world.

As creative teams and marketers start attaching different channels and touchpoints to this information, you naturally find yourself tracking back to key audiences, personas, and even individuals. Then, you’re ready to start building customer journey maps. 

“With that mapping you’ll be able to identify real moments of conversion — those big opportunities or missed opportunities,” Ramel says. “Once you understand those journeys and the audiences and segments behind them, you can decide where you want to focus your actual experience design.” 

While marketing strategists may take the lead in this mapping exercise, creative pros should actively contribute, bringing to bear designers’ natural strengths like customer empathy and a problem-solving mindset. As a creative leader, the more involved you are in designing the customer journey, the more you can anticipate and solve potential problems — for both your customers and your team.

Journey mapping and a strong data foundation are just the beginning, though. To create and deploy a high volume of content quickly, you need an integrated ecosystem of creative tools. For Molnar, that starts with collaboration and project management tools that ensure his team members and clients know what’s next and where they come in. The right tools help keep everyone on track at each stage of the project, from data analysis to content and creative development to final approvals and launch.

Molnar recommends a project management and collaboration tool that not only stores information and assets, but also shares timelines to help participants track their progress and their time. For his team, he says, it’s less about accountability and more about understanding where their time goes so they can better prepare for future projects.

“We’re far past the stage when we can send tons of emails and expect creative team members and clients to keep up and get things done on time,” Molnar says. “It’s an old approach to check in and say, ‘Did you see my email?’ Maybe I did, but maybe I’m working on 10 other things — and, now, I have no idea where any projects are. Teams need a productivity tool where everything and everyone lives, and where everyone can get real-time updates and information anytime.”

Consistency is also critical to delivering tailored experiences at scale — and speed. “Creative teams need to consider the tools, structures, systems, and libraries that help facilitate consistency across experiences and across team members,” Ramel says. “Then there’s also the concept of flexibility and adaptability. Those systems need to be able to work as you hit new and existing channels and new applications.” 

Rounding out the mix: tools and solutions that improve accessibility and ease of implementation. “That's really where the rubber meets the road for designers,” Ramel says. “Do creative teams and marketers have the universal access they need, especially in a world of remote and decentralized workforces? In this environment, to deliver high-quality consumer experiences, you need to have consistency, flexibility, and accessibility. We’ve worked with many clients who don’t share a file structure.” 

While the point about a shared file structure seems mundane, in high-speed production scenarios, archived work can easily get lost or misplaced. “This sets us back on future deliverables — and this consistency is critical to delivering high-quality creative that evolves and accelerates over time,” Ramel says.

Ultimately, delivering exceptional customer experiences comes down to balance — you have to deliver creative content quickly, but without sacrificing what makes those experiences special. 

“People want things faster,” Molnar says. “That’s not going to change. But there are two important considerations. First, consumers need to feel something with every experience. Without emotion or connection they won’t be excited — or driven to do anything.” They also need an experience that’s more than just beautiful design. “If you buy a cup and that cup is designed poorly or is hard to use, you’ll never use it again — you get no value from it. It’s the same for any experience. Design can’t just be good. It needs to empower that person to feel something and do something.”